Stewed Tomato Shirred Eggs with Ham Chips

Deep Run Roots

I was looking for something to do with the stewed tomatoes we made last week, and the idea of eggs baked in a pool of it, served over grits and with a crispy bit of prosciutto (you could choose country ham instead, but you need to be able to have it sliced VERY thinly!) was very enticing. So I made it!

I do have a very hard time baking eggs to my satisfaction, and this was no different. It is incredibly difficult to fully cook the whites while leaving the yolks runny...at least for me. I do think I needed to use a wider dish, which may have helped (or, may not), but would definitely allow more room for the eggs to cook separately.

Note: While this recipe is not vegetarian as written (because of the ham chips), you could substitute a crunchy cheese crisp instead. They are added on top, so it would be easy to please both vegetarians and meat eaters alike with one dish

Captions

[00:00]: [Music]
[00:04]: hello and welcome to cooking the books
[00:07]: with Heather today we're going to be
[00:09]: using the stewed tomatoes we made in our
[00:12]: last video which I will link up up here
[00:16]: um and we're going to be making stewed
[00:18]: tomato shered eggs with ham chips
[00:22]: these are just basically eggs baked in
[00:25]: the
[00:26]: stewed tomatoes so it's kind of like
[00:31]: um
[00:32]: Southern version of the shakshuka that's
[00:35]: been all over the internet in the past
[00:36]: couple years
[00:38]: um just not spiced that way so the first
[00:41]: thing I need to do is start making my
[00:43]: ham chips you can use either country ham
[00:47]: or prosciutto but they have to be really
[00:50]: thin slices and prosciutto comes that
[00:52]: way so that's what I decided to use
[00:56]: so I just bought the package of that and
[00:58]: we're gonna just make as many as fit on
[01:01]: my baking sheet
[01:03]: so my oven is heated to
[01:07]: 350.
[01:10]: and you can use you definitely want to
[01:12]: put these on a uh baking parchment paper
[01:16]: or a baking mat like a Silpat
[01:20]: um I like parchment
[01:23]: so that's what I'm using and I'm just
[01:25]: going to lay these out
[01:28]: in some single
[01:31]: pieces so you don't want these touching
[01:34]: and you want them to be flat on the pan
[01:42]: so it looks like I'll be able to get
[01:43]: like six
[01:45]: which should be
[01:47]: plenty for us it says it serves four
[01:50]: which is how many I am feeding today
[01:54]: um
[01:56]: she says that she
[01:59]: will serve these with
[02:02]: um
[02:03]: wilted bitter greens crusty bread
[02:07]: or uh
[02:10]: grits so I've got some grits today oh it
[02:15]: looks like six pieces is what I have so
[02:16]: that is perfect
[02:20]: will fit exactly
[02:22]: on my baking sheet
[02:24]: um so I've got my grits going in a pan
[02:27]: on the stove and they'll just kind of
[02:28]: sit there until we are ready
[02:34]: all right there we go our prosciutto is
[02:37]: on the pan and now what we're going to
[02:39]: do is put another piece of parchment
[02:41]: paper or baking mat or whatever on top
[02:45]: and another baking sheet on top of that
[02:48]: so that will help keep it flat so it
[02:51]: won't crumple up
[02:53]: I've never I've made these this type of
[02:55]: thing before
[02:57]: um baked prosciutto chips really
[02:59]: delicious uh without doing this and it's
[03:02]: usually fine but we'll do what she says
[03:04]: these go in my 350 degree oven for in
[03:09]: the middle rack for 12 to 15 minutes so
[03:12]: you want it to be crisp and she says two
[03:14]: shades Browner so we'll check that after
[03:18]: about 12 minutes
[03:20]: so my Ham's in the oven are prosciutos
[03:24]: in the oven and the next thing I need to
[03:26]: do is warm up my stewed tomatoes I did
[03:29]: try this after we made it but did not
[03:33]: want to cook this until later so I put
[03:37]: it in the refrigerator which she says is
[03:38]: best anyway so
[03:41]: we'll see I took out the big stem of
[03:44]: Basil but there's still a few pieces of
[03:47]: Basil in there leaves that's all right
[03:50]: so I'm going to put this on
[03:52]: the stove
[03:54]: just at medium I might put a lid on it
[03:56]: we just need to warm this up I'm not
[03:59]: really trying to cook it anymore just
[04:00]: get it warm so it doesn't start from
[04:02]: cold in the oven
[04:04]: so I'm gonna get that going smells like
[04:07]: delicious pork in here but we're gonna
[04:09]: check and see if we think
[04:11]: these are
[04:14]: done
[04:16]: I think there's still a little light if
[04:19]: you can see we're gonna go for another
[04:21]: three minutes and that will be the 15
[04:23]: that she says you know 12.
[04:29]: okay so my I'm gonna go ahead and get my
[04:33]: eggs ready to go in the oven because
[04:36]: it'll take a couple minutes and then
[04:38]: everything will be done she says to
[04:40]: spoon this into
[04:43]: a one and a half to two quart dish I
[04:47]: really want to pour it
[04:49]: I think I'm gonna pour it
[04:50]: but it does splatter
[04:52]: which is why I'm wearing the same
[04:54]: clothes I was wearing yesterday because
[04:55]: I knew I was going to get tomato all
[04:57]: over me
[04:59]: but what we are gonna do
[05:03]: is
[05:05]: kind of try to make a little well that's
[05:08]: not going to work that's just not going
[05:09]: to work because it's too liquidy all
[05:11]: right so uh
[05:14]: so
[05:16]: what we need to do now is
[05:19]: uh break the eggs into this mixture in a
[05:23]: way that they don't all run together
[05:26]: so I feel like this could be wider but
[05:29]: this is what I have
[05:31]: I maybe should have used my slightly
[05:33]: larger one but you know I'm going by the
[05:35]: directions this is almost two quart
[05:38]: so we're gonna go
[05:40]: in with the eggs
[05:44]: plenty of room between them I don't
[05:46]: think I will have plenty of room between
[05:47]: them but we'll do what we can
[05:52]: make at least
[05:53]: solids give me a little room there
[06:05]: it's my timer
[06:09]: I'm not too concerned
[06:20]: there we go
[06:24]: I almost picked up my
[06:27]: larger
[06:29]: one of this size and I should have
[06:33]: oops got a little bit of
[06:36]: a shell there
[06:39]: they're gonna run together apparently
[06:46]: but not happen over here
[06:56]: maybe maybe not
[06:58]: anyway so I'm going to take
[07:01]: my
[07:02]: other stuff out of the oven out comes
[07:05]: the prosciutto and in goes the
[07:11]: egg mixture she says
[07:14]: um
[07:15]: 12 minutes center rack uncovered if you
[07:20]: like the more runny 10 minutes
[07:24]: if you like your yolks more runny we
[07:26]: like runny yolks but
[07:28]: set whites so we're gonna try for the
[07:31]: 12th
[07:33]: um
[07:35]: I don't think these will actually get
[07:37]: crispy so I'm gonna stick these under
[07:40]: the
[07:42]: um eggs for just a couple more minutes
[07:44]: because I just don't think these will
[07:46]: get crispy they do they don't get crispy
[07:49]: until you you know until they sit out
[07:51]: and sort of get room temperature things
[07:53]: get crispier but I just don't think
[07:55]: these are quite done enough in my
[07:58]: experience so we're gonna go uncovered
[07:60]: for a couple minutes and I'm gonna put
[08:01]: this in the trash all right so I cooked
[08:04]: it for another I don't know three maybe
[08:07]: five minutes this is more what I was
[08:09]: looking for so we're gonna leave this on
[08:11]: the pan
[08:12]: and let it sit for until it gets to room
[08:16]: temperature and it'll crisp up
[08:18]: um as it cools
[08:21]: so this is all ready
[08:25]: in fact I'm going to put it on my my
[08:27]: granite countertop so it cools
[08:32]: so at
[08:34]: 12 minutes or nowhere near done but I
[08:37]: did open the oven several times which is
[08:39]: awful for for baking and timing so
[08:43]: um the whites are still clear so I'm
[08:46]: gonna give them another like five
[08:47]: minutes and check them because yeah
[08:50]: pretty far from done
[08:52]: so these are supposed to be done we've
[08:55]: done like 20 minutes now she says the
[08:58]: white should be a little Jiggly
[09:00]: I feel like they're still way too jiggly
[09:02]: for me I do not like
[09:05]: egg whites that are
[09:08]: severely undercooked
[09:13]: I usually end up overcooking my eggs in
[09:16]: the oven like this but I would rather
[09:18]: have them slightly overcooked than have
[09:19]: to deal with the super undercooked
[09:22]: whites so I'm gonna put these back in
[09:24]: for another I don't know three minutes
[09:25]: or so
[09:27]: I can pick it up here we go
[09:32]: I'm gonna call this done
[09:35]: probably overcooked
[09:37]: it's been like 23 minutes and now all we
[09:40]: have to do is sort of season the eggs
[09:42]: you'll notice that there was no
[09:44]: seasoning on before we cooked it so I'm
[09:48]: not measuring this salt there is a
[09:50]: measurement in the book but I'm not
[09:52]: going to use it I'm just going to kind
[09:54]: of season
[09:55]: like I normally would there is seasoning
[09:57]: in the the stewed tomatoes
[09:60]: so we've got salt
[10:03]: pepper
[10:07]: and
[10:08]: um she says whole basil parsley or
[10:11]: chival leaves I've got this little
[10:13]: basil that's been sitting out sitting
[10:16]: here waiting
[10:17]: for something to do
[10:20]: so I'm just gonna and we use basil in
[10:24]: the stewed tomatoes so
[10:27]: that's what I am going to do
[10:30]: is it to just season right before you
[10:32]: serve
[10:33]: so
[10:36]: that is now
[10:45]: all right well I am going to serve this
[10:48]: up and we'll show you what it looks like
[10:51]: when it's all on our plate oh actually
[10:52]: no she also says to
[10:55]: uh
[10:57]: season with some of this so what I'm
[10:59]: going to do is uh crumble up a piece
[11:04]: I don't know how so in her picture
[11:08]: there are um
[11:10]: there's a lot of very dark places on top
[11:14]: of the
[11:16]: tomato mixture and I don't know how at
[11:18]: 350 degrees
[11:21]: uh
[11:25]: you get that because mine didn't do that
[11:28]: at all
[11:30]: and maybe if so if you do that the egg
[11:33]: whites would be a little bit
[11:35]: less jiggly
[11:37]: seems like it was broiled for a little
[11:40]: bit but that is not in the recipe so
[11:42]: that is not what I did anyway we'll show
[11:45]: you what it looks like on our plates and
[11:47]: let you know what we think in just a
[11:48]: minute
[11:49]: [Music]
[11:56]: on this episode of cooking the books
[11:58]: with Heather you watched me make stewed
[12:00]: tomato shered eggs with ham chips
[12:03]: from Vivian Howard's Deep Run Roots
[12:06]: cookbook now I did have a few problems
[12:08]: with this recipe
[12:11]: um first off it took my prosciutto
[12:14]: longer to cook than
[12:17]: she says it does I think I ended up
[12:21]: cooking mine at least 20 minutes I
[12:24]: probably said when I first took them out
[12:25]: it was at least 20 minutes and I did
[12:28]: take the second pan off they still were
[12:33]: pretty
[12:34]: pretty flat and I probably even could
[12:36]: have gone a little bit longer than that
[12:39]: they were
[12:40]: crunchy but not super crunchy
[12:42]: when we ate them
[12:45]: that's okay that's something I think
[12:47]: that really depends on your oven and
[12:50]: um I personally I think I prefer baking
[12:52]: them without the other tray on top
[12:56]: because then you can very easily tell
[12:57]: when they're done because they do change
[12:58]: colors
[13:01]: um
[13:03]: also I think I would use a
[13:06]: larger
[13:08]: pan a larger casserole dish so that or
[13:12]: at least wider not necessarily taller
[13:14]: but wider so that I could more easily
[13:17]: have my eggs be separate because I used
[13:22]: four eggs in a almost two quart
[13:25]: casserole dish and it was just they were
[13:28]: the the stewed tomatoes were a little
[13:30]: bit too thick the eggs were a little bit
[13:32]: too close together
[13:34]: um
[13:35]: so I would choose a wider casserole dish
[13:40]: um that was just maybe a poor choice on
[13:42]: my end but now I know
[13:44]: also our stewed tomatoes ended up a
[13:47]: little bit watery I probably would have
[13:49]: reheated them without a lid on them
[13:50]: doing this again just to to thicken it
[13:54]: up a little bit more not keep all of the
[13:56]: moisture in there
[13:59]: um
[14:00]: but that end
[14:02]: always have a really hard time judging
[14:05]: when my eggs are done when I bake them
[14:09]: um and in fact
[14:12]: the yolks were not runny they were kind
[14:17]: of Jammy they were not fully cooked and
[14:19]: dry but they were sort of like a what
[14:21]: people call a Jammy yolk it was
[14:26]: like I said not fully cooked but also
[14:28]: not runny but the whites were also still
[14:31]: a little too underdone for me a little
[14:35]: too jiggly I don't know if a larger pan
[14:37]: a little more surface area would help
[14:40]: that
[14:41]: um like I said it really looks like this
[14:45]: maybe has been broiled
[14:47]: uh but that is not in the instructions
[14:50]: um just the
[14:51]: the picture in the book doesn't
[14:54]: seem to
[14:56]: correspond with the instructions because
[14:59]: there are some really dark places on the
[15:03]: top of the uh of the Tomato this the
[15:08]: stewed tomato part of this dish and I
[15:10]: there was nowhere I was nowhere near
[15:12]: getting any Browning on my tomatoes so
[15:15]: it really looks like they were broiled
[15:18]: maybe that would help I'm not sure but I
[15:20]: do always have a hard time judging if my
[15:23]: eggs are done correctly in the oven so
[15:26]: that's why I don't often do that
[15:29]: but it was really delicious
[15:31]: um
[15:32]: if once I got past the whites being a
[15:36]: little bit underdone for me serving it
[15:39]: with the
[15:40]: tomato sauce well the stewed tomatoes
[15:42]: and serving it with grits really helped
[15:45]: sort of not
[15:47]: not feel like I was eating runny whites
[15:51]: if you know what I mean it wasn't the
[15:53]: the yucky
[15:55]: texture in my mouth because there were
[15:57]: other things going on in there it wasn't
[15:58]: just an undercooked egg all all by
[16:01]: itself
[16:02]: um
[16:04]: so
[16:05]: would I make these again probably not in
[16:09]: this way but I certainly would
[16:11]: serve
[16:13]: the stewed tomatoes with eggs maybe in a
[16:17]: slightly different way
[16:19]: next time just just because I can't get
[16:22]: my eggs cooked exactly like I like them
[16:24]: in the oven like this and that may be a
[16:26]: me thing I don't know if you like
[16:28]: cooking eggs in the oven and can get
[16:30]: them where the
[16:32]: whites are cooked but the yolks are
[16:34]: runny let me know in the comments down
[16:36]: below exactly how you that point me
[16:38]: somewhere and I'll try it
[16:40]: um but I have had no luck in anything
[16:42]: and I even cooked these
[16:45]: um
[16:46]: probably at least 20 minutes
[16:49]: which is eight minutes more than she
[16:52]: suggests for uh a barely set yolk
[16:58]: but I also opened the oven a couple
[17:00]: times because I was still trying to
[17:01]: finish the prosciutto chips
[17:07]: delicious it was great with uh with
[17:10]: grits I I think it would also be great
[17:12]: with with bread like a crust a crusty
[17:15]: bread or a or a Sourdough toast to sort
[17:19]: of sop up some of that juice from the
[17:21]: Tomato would be really good
[17:24]: just in my opinion so if you enjoyed
[17:28]: watching me make this please give me a
[17:30]: thumbs up hit the Subscribe button and
[17:32]: come back and watch me make something
[17:33]: else next week
[17:34]: [Music]